12/17/2012

Conspicuously absent from any and all talk of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has been James Franco, and whether or not he'd be returning as the one human trusted by lead chimp, Caesar. There's been a lot of creative turnover leading into the sequel, and I thought the addition of Matt Reeves as director may have meant a decision was made to go for bigger action, and thus Franco became more expendable. Whether that's the route they go is unclear, but at least for Franco it sounds like he won't be involved in the film at all.
Talking to MTV, Franco makes the assumption that he's out of the sequel, largely because nobody's told him anything yet.....

Franco: "I was going to be a small part of the next one. There was a moment when
Rupert Wyatt was going to direct the second one. A lot of the human
characters that were in the first movie were dead in the sequel that
Rupert was going to direct. But there was one scene, between Caesar and
my character, maybe even just like on a video that was left behind, but
then a lot of things happened, like [former Fox co-chairman] Tom Rothman
who was a big part of the first movie, left. Now Rupert’s not a part of
it so I don’t know. My guess is I won’t be in it. Nobody’s talked to me
since Rupert left."

I thought Franco was solid and gave Rise of the Planet of the Apes a solid human quality, so I'm a little surprised he hasn't been contact. Plus, he's James Franco! Why wouldn't you want one of Hollywood's biggest stars back, even for a small bit? Oh well. Right now the only person signed, sealed, and delivered is Andy Serkis. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opens on May 23rd 2014.